(PS) Crawford v. Truss Company and Building Supply, Inc. ( 2020 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 RENEE CRAWFORD, No. 2:19-cv-01716 JAM AC 11 Plaintiff, 12 v. ORDER 13 THE TRUSS COMPANY AND BUILDING SUPPLY, INC., 14 Defendant. 15 16 17 Plaintiff is appearing in this case in pro se following withdrawal of counsel, and the case 18 was accordingly referred to the magistrate judge pursuant to Local Rule 302(c)(21). ECF Nos. 8, 19 9, 11. Before the court is defendant’s motion to compel discovery, filed November 6, 2020. ECF 20 No. 17.1 According to the statement of discovery disagreement submitted by defendant, plaintiff 21 refused to participate in the filing of a joint statement as required by the local rules. ECF No. 19 22 at 2. Defendant gives a detailed account of attempts to meet and confer with plaintiff both when 23 she was represented by counsel and following the disassociation of counsel. Id. at 3-11. 24 I. Motion 25 Defendant moves to compel responses to its Interrogatories, Set One, and Requests for 26 27 1 Defendant previously filed a motion to compel that was denied as untimely. ECF Nos. 12, 14. The discovery deadline in this case has since been extended to March 12, 2021, rendering the 28 current motion timely. ECF No. 16. 1 Production, Set One, each served on plaintiff on November 18, 2019. ECF No. 19 at 3. 2 Plaintiff’s responses are now nearly a year overdue. Id. 3 II. Analysis 4 A. Failure to Respond to Discovery Requests 5 The Federal Rules require parties to respond to propounded interrogatories and requests 6 for production within 30 days. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 33(b)(2) (“The responding party must serve its 7 answers and any objections within 30 days after being served with the interrogatories.”), 8 34(b)(2)(A) (“The party to whom the request is directed must respond in writing within 30 days 9 after being served . . . .”). Under Rule 37(a), a party may move for an order compelling 10 disclosure or discovery if a party fails to answer an interrogatory submitted under Rule 33 or fails 11 to produce documents requested under Rule 34. Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(3)(B)(iii), (iv). A motion 12 to compel “must include a certification that the movant has in good faith conferred or attempted 13 to confer with the person or party failing to make . . . discovery in an effort to obtain it without 14 court action.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(1). 15 In this case, the defendant properly served plaintiff with its first set of interrogatories and 16 requests for production in November of 2019. ECF No. 19 at 3-4. The undisputed timeline of 17 events preceding the instant motion confirms that plaintiff has had several opportunities to 18 provide the discovery responses in question, and that defense counsel has been reasonable in 19 granting extensions and attempting to resolve this dispute. Plaintiff’s responses are now overdue 20 by nearly one year. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 33(b)(2) (30 days), 34(b)(2)(A) (same); see also Fed. R. 21 Civ. P. 6(d) (adding 3 days for service by mail). Defendant asserts that, to date, it has not 22 received any response to the served interrogatories or requests for production. ECF No. 19 at 4. 23 Because plaintiff has completely failed to timely respond or object to the discovery 24 requests, she has waived any objections to them. See Richmark Corp. v. Timber Falling 25 Consultants, 959 F.2d 1468, 1473 (9th Cir. 1992) (“It is well established that a failure to object to 26 discovery requests within the time required constitutes a waiver of any objection.”). Plaintiff’s 27 lack of opposition or contribution to defendant’s motion to compel further prevents the 28 undersigned from finding good cause to permit plaintiff to assert any objections to the written 1 || discovery at issue. Accordingly, defendant’s motion to compel plaintiff to respond to its 2 | Interrogatories, Set One and Requests for Production of Documents, Set One will be granted, and 3 | plaintiff will be ordered to provide those responses within ten days and without objections. 4 Defendant seeks no further relief at this juncture, and therefore no further relief is granted. 5 || As a self-represented litigant, plaintiff must follow the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the 6 || Local Rules of this Court, and she is obligated to participate in the discovery process. Failure to 7 | doso could result in sanctions including dismissal of this case. 8 I. Conclusion 9 For the foregoing reasons, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that defendant’s motion to compel 10 | plaintiff to answer its interrogatories and to respond to its requests for production (ECF No. 17) is 11 | GRANTED. Within ten days of entry of this order, plaintiff shall serve defendant with answers 12 | to its Interrogatories, Set One and responses to its Requests for Production of Documents, Set 13 | One. Failure to comply with this order may result in sanctions. 14 | DATED: December 1, 2020 ™ 15 Attu —Clone_ ALLISON CLAIRE 16 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28